Irrational fears turned ACA into a complex mess

Revelations about problems with the Affordable Care Act and major glitches in its implementing computer program — intensified by the public delight of the President’s opponents — give me pause to reflect on a few things.

First, I know how these things go. I once had to rewrite key sections of the instruction manual for a major new computer program, produced by a team of supposed technical wizards, because it flat-out did not work the way the experts claimed. I’ve since heard that this sort of problem is common.

But much more important, in all the claims and counter-claims surrounding the program’s supposed failures, folks tend to forget history. Sure the complicated nature of the ACA contributed to the partial failure in its implementation. It is an incredibly complex piece of legislation, requiring simultaneous integration with a number of existing systems such as the IRS, many insurance companies, and other participants in our health care system.

But why is that so? Why is it so impossibly complex?

It’s that way because the Congress kept messing with the law as it was being written. And this was because they absolutely refused to do it the easy way. The easy way would have been adopt the single-payer solution. If not that, acceptance of the much-feared “public option” would have helped.

Why is it that other nations have managed to build working health care systems based mainly on the single-payer structure? Despite the ill-informed critics who say these plans do not work, they are, in fact, quite successful. Forget all the stories about Canadians flooding across the border to get American health care. Ignore tales of British citizens waiting forever for needed surgeries. Folks in these countries, and in others with government-managed health care, are generally quite pleased with the way things are working. They receive excellent health care.

It’s clear that the U.S. vastly outspends most other countries in health care without being able to show that high cost equates with good results.

We could have avoided all the problems, real or imagined, associated with the ACA by simply forgetting our irrational fears of “socialized medicine” and adopting the single-payer option. Medicare, despite minor shortcomings, works.